Check Out The 10 Coolest Frank Zappa Items Up For Auction

On Friday, November 4 Julien’s Auctions will begin Icons & Idols: Rock n’ Roll 2016 Featuring Property From The Estate Of Frank & Gail Zappa. The auction features over 500 items from the Zappa family home in Laurel Canyon. A full list of the items up for bid has been posted and while there are hundreds of non-musical personal items from the Zappa’s home including Ahmet’s artwork and Diva’s clothes, featured within are a number of particularly cool items.

We went through the hundreds of items that are part of the auction and put together a list of our own. Below you’ll see the 10 items we think stand out from the rest.

1. Frank Zappa’s Smoking Jacket

Does it get any cooler than a smoking jacket Frank used to lounge out in featuring his initials? That a label inside reads “His Excellency” makes us want it even more.

Estimate: $400 – $600

2. Frank Zappa’s 1984 Performance Stratocaster Guitar

Here’s your chance to own Frank Zappa’s last main guitar. He used this non-Fender, Strat-style axe during his final two tours in 1984 and 1988. The “butterscotch strat” is said to be the last guitar he ever played.

Estimate: $4,000 – $6,000

3. Frank Zappa puppets from Baby Snakes claymation feature

Many of the sculptures animator Bruce Bickford put together for the claymation feature in FZ’s Baby Snakes film are up for auction including these puppets of Frank himself.

Estimate: $1,000 – $2,000

4. Frank Zappa’s Saturday Night Live script

Frank hosted the October 21, 1978 episode of NBC series Saturday Night Live. His hard-bound, custom script from that evening’s installment of SNL is up for auction.

Estimate: $400 – $600

5. A postcard John Lennon and Yoko Ono sent Frank Zappa

This postcard was sent by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to Frank Zappa in approximately 1971, the year the pair jammed with FZ at Fillmore East in New York City.

Estimate: $800 – $1,2000

6. Frank Zappa Mu-Tron Bi-Phase

We can dream about all the guitar solos Frank used this phaser effect on to eek out masterful tones around the period of 1973’s Roxy: The Movie.

Estimate: $100 – $150

7. Frank Zappa’s Halloween 1981 magenta jumpsuit

FZ wore this wild jumpsuit during his October 31, 1981 concert in New York City at The Palladium. It was immortalized in the concert film The Torture Never Stops.

Estimate: $1,000 – $2,000

8. Warner Brothers Sucks t-shirt

In the ’70s Frank had a tumultuous end to his relationship with Warner Bros. Records. He had this t-shirt made up in 1977 to show off his frustration with the label.

Estimate: $300 – $500

9. Captain Beefheart drawing gifted to the Zappas

Early FZ collaborator and legend in his own right Don “Captain Beefheart” Van Vliet gave this incredibly cool drawing to Frank and Gail Zappa in March of 1975.

Estimate: $2,000 – $4,000

10. Frank Zappa’s custom-made, stage-worn platform shoes

These customized platform shoes were worn by FZ on stage in 1973 and 1974. You’ll notice a number of drawings on the shoes including a portrait of Frank and inscriptions of “Hi Mom,” “Toes Knows,” “Lick Lips,” “Hot Tits” and “Fing A Ling.”

Estimate: $1,000 – $2,000